This web page written by thoracic surgeon Fred Grannis MD represents an attempt to provide smokers, lung cancer patients and their families with information on cigarette smoking, cessation, lung cancer risk, diagnosis and treatment.
THE LUNG CANCER
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This web page is dedicated to the memory of Stephen Teel. Steve was my patient, as well as a friend and long-time collaborator, who provided the web design and web services for this page. He died on July 31, 2004 at age 46 after a valiant 7-year struggle against cancers of the head and neck, lung and esophagus. Steve made a valuable contribution to society by creating a web site where cancer survivors could tell their life stories. His family maintains Steve’s web page, including the illustrated web-diary of his illness at Cancer Warriors . Steve will be badly missed. If you have reached The Lung Cancer and Cigarette Smoking Web Page on Compuserve, please be advised of the following change of address. The Lung Cancer and Cigarette Smoking Web Page was established in January 1996 at URL http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lungcancer Because of problems maintaining the page at this ISP location, the page has been moved to a new location. The new up-dated, expanded and redesigned web page can be found at http://www.smokinglungs.com Please clink on the following link to be transferred to the new and improved web site. http://www.smokinglungs.com |
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Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States. | |
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More than 154,000 Americans will die from lung cancer in 2002. | |
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Only 12-15% of patients with lung cancer are being cured with today's treatments. | |
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More than 90% of lung cancers are preventable. | |
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Definition: ``A cigarette is a euphemism for a cleverly crafted product that delivers just the right amount of nicotine to keep its user addicted for life before killing the person.'' World Health Organization director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland | |
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Recent polls indicate that, despite all accumulated knowledge on the subject of diseases caused by tobacco products, a shockingly high percentage of smokers continue to believe that their cigarettes will not cause them harm. This page is dedicated to changing this intolerable ignorance. It is my hope that anyone who visits here and browses through the pages of the Lung Cancer and Cigarette Smoking Web Page will leave with eyes open to the danger of lung cancer and other diseases caused by tobacco. | |
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A recent National Cancer Institute focus group suggests that many ex-smokers believe that they are no longer at risk for lung cancer. This is a dangerous misperception. Unfortunately, some risk of lung cancer persists for many years following smoking cessation. The good news is that the risk diminishes with the passage of time. | |
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The overwhelming majority of lung cancers, greater than 90%, are caused by cigarette smoking. There are currently almost fifty million smokers in the U.S. and another fifty million are ex-smokers. | |
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This means that approximately one third of the population of our country is at high risk for this terrible disease and for multiple other tobacco-related diseases, including cancers of the mouth, tongue, throat, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, bladder and kidney, and also at risk for coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, gangrene of the legs and stroke. |
| Please create a bookmark to this site before following a link to another web page. That way, you will be able to find your way back here in case you are disconnected. |
If one picture is worth a thousand words, then perhaps the
best place to start is with a few pictures of lung cancer.
Lung
Cancer gross pathology from Web Page at the University of Utah Pathology
An
xray of the same tumor
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My name is Frederic W. Grannis Jr. MD and I am a thoracic
surgeon who lives in Long Beach, California, with more than thirty years of experience
in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. On June 1, 1996 I joined
the full time faculty of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California 
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This is a test version of a web page, first posted in January 1996,
that represents an attempt on my part to provide smokers, lung cancer patients
and their families with information on cigarette smoking cessation, lung
cancer risk, diagnosis and treatment. Whenever my personal opinion is not
concordant with current medical practice, I will try to point this out
and explain my position.
The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of any of the organizations mentioned on this page or in any of the pages linked here. This page is completely independent. There is no support of any kind, from any individual or corporate entity. It is important for the reader to realize that it is impossible to give accurate personal medical advice from a distance. Any information found here or in E-mail must be put into context by discussion with your private physician. Privacy Policy |
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Please forgive any broken links. It is very difficult to maintain a stable page in a living, growing medium where pages and addresses change all too frequently.
It is important for people surfing the net for medical information to be sure to check on the qualifications of the person or group providing the information. This article by Dr. Barry Tepperman MD explains this concept in considerably greater detail.
My curriculum vitae and bibliography are viewable at these links
27% of the E-mail and form responses I receive at this site comes from persons 21 years of age and younger. In an attempt to meet the special needs of this group, who represent a specific target group for predatory tobacco industry marketing and advertising, I have opened a new WWW page entitled
The Young Person's Cyber-Library of Information on Tobacco and Tobacco-Caused Disease. Young people may wish to follow the link there now.One glaring weakness of the page is the almost total absence of input from nurses. I welcome links and submissions of information on the nursing care of patients with lung cancer and other smoking related diseases, including palliative care and hospice care.
There is exciting new information on the early detection of lung cancer using low-dose, non-contrast, spiral computerized tomography (CT or CAT scan). Lung Cancer Screening 2002
My experience with this page has been presented at two international chest medical conferences in Gdansk, Poland and in Dublin, Ireland. The abstracts of these presentations can be found at these links.
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The Tobacco and the Public Health How are your state's elected officials doing to protect the health of citizens by passing effective tobacco control legislation? Find out by reading the information state by state in this new report from the American Lung Association.
If your state got a failing grade, please consider writing to your elected officials to tell them that they are not doing their job properly, and you will remember this the next time that you step into a voting booth. State of Tobacco Control 2002| Hall of Fame | Hall of Shame |
The other three sections, Lung Cancer and Other Diseases Caused by Tobacco Products - Diagnosis of Lung Cancer & Treatment of Lung Cancer, are in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format
For further information on lung cancer from the National Cancer Institute:
| Small cell lung cancer (Patient) | Small
cell lung cancer (Physician) |
| Nonsmall cell lung cancer (Patient) | Nonsmall
cell lung cancer (Physician)
There is an entire book on lung cancer designed for the non-medical general reader. With Every Breath: A Lung Cancer Guidebook is a patient-oriented book courtesy of Tina M. St. John, M.D.
written for people recently diagnosed with lung cancer and their loved ones. www.lungcancerguidebook.org/
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I have generally avoided links to commercial web pages, but some of these sites offer potentially useful products.
The No-Butz Web Page dedicated to a cleaner world for our children, free from the disgusting mar of discarded cigarette butts. " Its our world, not an ashtray."
I would like to thank the following web sites for the use of the backgrounds and icons, counters and other useful services used in this page.
| The Background Sampler |
I will make an effort to answer all non-commercial mail, but there may be significant delays.
Starting Point 
